... to news that prosecutors will appeal after he was cleared of defaming President Sarkozy. Judges said there was no evidence against Villepin in the so-called Clearstream affair. Villepin said: “The president prefers to keep up his dogged ...

Villepin has suggested those revelations were also aimed at his potential bid for the presidency, in which he could split the vote on the right and derail Sarkozy's chances of getting through to the second round. The Clearstream case centred on a fake list ...

A Paris appeals court upheld a 2010 decision clearing the politician in the so-called Clearstream affair. The scandal, involving fake accounts linked to hundreds of business leaders, unfolded as Villepin vied with Sarkozy to succeed President Jacques ...

POLITICAL rivalry, international arms-dealing, industrial intrigue, spookery, financial kickbacks: the Clearstream affair ... One person named was Mr Sarkozy, then finance minister under President Jacques Chirac. (Mr de Villepin was interior minister.)

The Economist online •
9 years ago

http://www.economist.com/node/12725244

De Villepin attacks Nicolas Sarkozy as Clearstream trial begins

The so-called "Clearstream affair" nearly destroyed the centre-right government of the then president Jacques Chirac in which the former diplomat Mr de Villepin and the blunt-spoken outsider Sarkozy were rival ministers. Mr de Villepin is accused of trying ...

said the Clearstream case boiled down to a bitter rivalry between the two politicians. "It is a huge personal vindication for Dominique de Villepin and also a big political victory with his long-running rival Nicolas Sarkozy," she said. "Both men wanted ...

Al JAZEERA •
6 years ago

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2011/09/201191442120368207.html

Villepin's bitter attack on Sarkozy at start of trial

accusing him of a relentless fixation with the so-called Clearstream Affair. "I am here because of the decision of one man and the obsession of one man - Nicolas Sarkozy," Mr Villepin said as he arrived at the courthouse with his wife and three children.

A French appeals court has cleared Dominique de Villepin, the former French prime minister, of complicity in the Clearstream smear campaign against his bitter rival President Nicolas Sarkozy. The decision brings to an end years of legal wrangling ...

Financial Times •
6 years ago

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/58872b04-dec1-11e0-a228-00144feabdc0.html

French ex-PM Dominique de Villepin cleared of smear campaign

French appeal court upholds acquittal of former PM on charges of slandering Nicolas Sarkozy in Clearstream scandal France's former prime minister Dominique de Villepin outside court in Paris after his acquittal on charges of slander involving Nicolas Sarkozy.

PARIS — The former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin was cleared Wednesday by an appeals court of trying to smear President Nicolas Sarkozy before the 2007 election in what is known as the Clearstream scandal. The court ruled to confirm …